Page 172 - YOU CAN WIN - SHIV KHERA

RokZRooM Special ! You Can Win by Shiv Khera

* Journal of the American Family Association, November / December 1991.
But Gonzales, after a little pause and hesitation, turned back to shake his opponent's
hand and said, "The shot was faulty." As a result, he lost the serve and eventually, lost
the match.
Everyone was stunned. Who could imagine that a player with everything officially in
his favor, with winning in his pocket, would disqualify himself and lose. When asked
why he did it, Gonzales replied, "It was the only thing to do in order to maintain my
integrity." He lost the match, yet he was a winner.
3. A group of salespeople left town for a meeting and told their families they would be
back home Friday evening for supper. But as with meetings the way they are, one
thing leads to another and they didn't finish on time. They were delayed and had to
catch a flight. They came to the airport just at the last minute, with tickets in hand, and
ran, hoping the plane hadn't departed. While running, one of them hit a table and on
the table was a fruit basket. All the fruit got scattered and bruised but they didn't have
time to stop. They kept running and made it to the plane and all of them breathed a
sigh of relief that they had made it, except one. He got in touch with his feelings, got
up, said good-bye to his friends and went. What he saw made him glad that he came
out. He went to the table that was knocked down and behind the table was a ten-year-
old blind girl who was selling the fruits to make a living. He said, "I hope we haven't
ruined your day." He pulled out $10 from his pocket, handed it to her and said, "This
will take care of the fruits," and he left. The girl couldn't see what was going on; all she
could hear was the footsteps leaving. As the footsteps faded away, she shouted from
behind, "Are you God?" He missed his flight but was he a winner? You bet. One can
be a winner without a medal and one can be a loser with a medal if winning is not kept
in perspective.

WINNING IS AN EVENT; BEING A WINNER IS A SPIRIT

Three people ran a marathon besides hundreds of others. The medal was won by a
fourth person. But does that mean that these three people were losers? Not at all. They
all went into the race with different objectives. The first one went in to test his endurance
and he did and came out better than his expectations. The second wanted to improve on
his previous performance, and he did. The third person had never run a marathon in his
life. His objective was to complete the race and reach the finish line and he did. What
does that tell us? All three with different objectives met them and they were all winners,
regardless of who won the medal.
As Mark Twain said, it is better to deserve an honor and not have it than to have it and
not deserve it. Because dignity is not in possessing but deserving.
If winning is the only objective, a person may miss out on the internal rewards that come
with winning. More important than winning is winning with honor and deserving to have
won. It is better to lose honorably than to succeed with dishonesty. Losing honorably may
signify lack of preparation but dishonest winning signifies lack of character.
The real test of a person's character is what he would or would not do if he knew he
would never be found out. It is not worth compromising one's integrity and taking
shortcuts to win. You may win a trophy but knowing the truth you can never be a happy
person. More important than winning a trophy is being a good human being.

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